


open your mind

by knightofpherae



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Alaris ( Original Character ), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, During Canon, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Teddie, Internalized Homophobia, LGBTQ Themes, Major Original Character(s), Multi, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Shirogane Naoto, Nonbinary Souji Seta, Original Character(s), Persona 4 Spoilers, Persona 4: Golden, Self-Indulgent, Trans Hanamura Yosuke, also i might pick up fic writing more its fun when i dont have brainrot, bc yeah it takes place in the golden universe, i already know if i continue this there'll be typical internal yosuke homophobia, im bad at tagging on ao3, mainly alaris and all of the boys except teddie might be sprinkled in, might be implied oc x some of the IT but it isnt prominent, so sorry if i actually do tht, tl;dr dont read this for the ships bc im prob gunna be subtle with them, triggers posted in notes if there is any, watch me drop this fic as soon as i post it, yall already know why that tag is there ( its yosuke )
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25471297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightofpherae/pseuds/knightofpherae
Summary: A ( somewhat faulty ) anti-shadow suppression weapon is sent into Inaba to investigate suspicious activity. What happens when they get into more than they bargained for?( also for the people who are finding this fic via scrolling tags, the current characters in the persona series who've made an appearance are mitsuru ( multiple times ), yukiko ( ch2 ), and yosuke ( ch3 ). saying this bc i know i always get fed up when there are character tags but said character isnt in the fic )
Relationships: Amagi Yukiko/Satonaka Chie, Hanamura Yosuke/Seta Souji, Kujikawa Rise/Shirogane Naoto
Kudos: 10





	1. intro || task

**Author's Note:**

> hello lgbtqa+ community - persona 4 isnt my main interest anymore so i may get some details wrong, but suddenly i got ideas about writing super self indulgent stuff.. and then i proceeded to go ham and wrote more than i ever have writing a fic, im p sure
> 
> also by the way if you were wondering, alaris looks like this - ( https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/24771818_3Xpi9pHQYjTW7AW.png ) 
> 
> \- when hes disguised and it'll be his main look for most of the fic just with minor clothing changes n stuff. i didnt describe this in-fic because god imagine describing a characters physical attributes when you can draw.

“There has been a startling amount of suspicious activity in Inaba. Your mission is to investigate.” Her words were as clear as day to the Anti-Shadow Unit.

“Task confirmed. I will depart to Inaba tomorrow as soon as possible and study the suspicious activity, then return once it is properly dealt with.” The bot nodded, adding the task to their internal memory to-do list ( which is just a fancy way of saying a checklist to a robot ).

“You’ll need this before you leave.” The woman gives the robot a bag full of clothes, eye contacts, makeup, and other such things to hide his robotic features.

  
“Stay safe, Alaris. If anything of note pops up, I’ll call you.” She turns her back, hair blowing in the wind as she leaves.

  
“Thank you, Mitsuru-san.” The robot - Alaris - murmured. He was a Generation 6 Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon who escaped the torture that was his everyday life in the facility he and other units used to reside in. After being found by Mitsuru ( somehow, his memory of the event is blurry ) he was recruited to S.E.E.S. However, he’s somewhat faulty and damaged, some of his functions like his memory and such being a bit unwieldy. That’s all he really remembers.

But there is one thing he does know.

He doesn’t have any other purpose other than to serve.


	2. || countryside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> finally arriving at inaba

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote so much within a few minutes and im so happy with it i
> 
> also yukiko is in this chapter! yeehaw! trust me if i continue writing this chapter 4 is where it'll get interesting
> 
> once again if i get anything wrong its bc i dropped my hyperfixation on persona for something else so i remember important stuff but not most minor things

Date - 5/25.

The fresh air wasn’t all too familiar to Alaris, but he did welcome the change of pace from the city sort of feel that Tatsumi Port Island had. He hasn’t been on a proper mission before - as all of this was rather… well... recent. Truth be told, he doesn’t really know how he got wrapped up into all of this. He doesn’t mind, as long as he’s serving a purpose, however.

Although, all of his scattered thoughts came to a halt as a voice came over the intercom.

“Yasoinaba Station. Yasoinaba Station. Passengers who are headed for Inaba City and Yasoinaba Station please depart at the stop.” The monotone voice spoke, making some of the passenger’s heads turn, only to go back to doing whatever they were doing before.

The vehicle suddenly ground to a halt. Nobody got up except for 2 other people and Alaris, who was the first to stand up and head out of the crowded stuffy bus. He had a mission and he was going to complete it at all costs.

As he walked out ( with some minor difficulty, as he isn't used to wearing shoes ) he noticed how different it was compared to Port Island. It was considerably less crowded. It’s to be expected, but still new and intriguing to Alaris. He could get used to it, especially considering it means fewer people’s eyes would be on him… Although maybe more people would stare at him because he comes from a considerably more popular area and most people can recognize someone who doesn’t come from the area... Hm. He also suddenly remembered that he had to come up with a feasible backstory for himself, as he was pretending to be human after all. A transfer student from Gekkoukan… Has a nice ring to it. Adopted. Male, but he could probably make people think otherwise. Sexuality doesn’t matter because as a robot he shouldn’t care about those things. He’ll think about that when someone asks. Not that he cared for gender or sexuality at all anyways. Ambivert. Wears glasses. Straight-A-Student. That should be enough to be believable. The rest shouldn’t really matter, and it’ll come up when it does.

He also realized that he may not have planned this out as perfectly as he could’ve, considering he had no idea where he was supposed to live. He’d check with Mitsuru later on that because - excuse the language - he’s kinda fucked otherwise. Maybe he could manage even if that were the case - but it’d be rather difficult even as a robot to keep the disguise of a human who needs to eat and needs to be taken care of regularly, especially if his disguise wears which is likely without shelter.

But he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. In the end, it doesn’t ( e̶v̶e̶n̶ ) matter, he just needs to investigate while blending in. In.. In.. wait - Inn. ...there should be an Inn, right? Whatever. He’ll figure it out later. 

While he was thinking of all of his anxieties and how to shut them up and push them to the back of his head, he was essentially on auto-pilot without realizing, walking forward aimlessly. He noticed a gas station with a rather odd individual working at it. They looked… kind of pretty, but that is not the point - he wasn’t built to be emotional and intimate. His sensors picked up something… odd off of them. But he was faulty after all. Bad vibes, likely. Nothing more, nothing less, 'get back to the task' he thought to himself.

He pressed a button on his headphones ( that are kind of more or less his ears, too, but thankfully they just look like kinda odd headphones ) that called Mitsuru’s number, as he walked towards a more vacant area so nobody would notice.

Ring… Ringing… Ringing… And a sudden stop. Her voice came through after a small bit of silence. 

“Hows your job going?” She picked up.

“Its been smooth so far. I’m a bit lost, and I don’t exactly know where I’ll be staying here for the time being. Thankfully I brought a considerable amount of yen, and if I need more I can work a job fairly well.”

“Hm. That’s good. As for help, Amagi Inn should be where you stay for tonight. It’s known to be Inaba’s most popular attraction for tourists, so you’ll fit right in. I’ll send the directions directly to your database. We’re getting an apartment ready for you - sorry for the inconvenience.”

“No need to apologize, I should’ve considered this a bit more carefully so you wouldn’t go through the trouble. I appreciate the effort greatly Mitsuru-san.” He nods, even though she can’t see.

“It’s fine. I should’ve told you this earlier anyways. Remember, after tomorrow you’ll be registered into Yasogami High as well. Be safe.” She hung up, leaving Alaris to his own for the time being. He felt something buzz in his body - that must be the directions. 

His brain ( or the robot equivalent ) suddenly imagined the image of the Amagi Inn. An internal GPS told his programming where the location was and what turns to make - he didn’t take in much of the scenery as he more or less went on autopilot again unless something caught his attention. 

After not much time at all due to walking rather fast, he was at the inn. He stretched, with only the reason just to look more natural. It looked . . .  _ ( SEARCHING FOR COMPLIMENTS - PLEASE HOLD )  _ . . . nice. Not that he spends much time at inns, anyways. Walking inside, he was suddenly hit with a wave of considerably warmer air. Kind of like… steam? Huh. Odd. 

Either way, he walked to the reception desk, seeing a teenager from what he assumed with her hair in a bun, wearing a kimono from the looks of it. She looked somewhat tired, visible but subtle eyebags showed, and she had a patient smile, but the type where you know that she’s kind of uninterested and just wants a break. However, she seemed to get back into the general customer service attitude, and her interest piqued a bit at the sight of Alaris. She must tell that he’s not around here. Clothes must’ve given it off, considering how… “Unique” he dressed.

“Hello, welcome to the Amagi Inn. I’m Yukiko Amagi. Would you like to stay for the night?” Ah, talking to people. The worst part of being - or acting - like a human.

He nodded, “Yes, a one-person room for the night should suffice.” He slides over the necessary amount of yen, as he already knew the prices from looking up some info during the walk here. This made the girl - Yukiko - throw her eyebrows up slightly, but it passed after a few seconds.

“Follow me, I’ll show you to your room.” She walked away from the counter and went to the back area, Alaris following close behind. He took in the scenery. It seemed to be a more old-fashioned inn, which he could appreciate. After a short walk, she stopped at one door and turned towards the robot. 

“This is your room. Enjoy your stay.” She walked off, leaving Alaris to his own devices. He walked inside, and took off his shoes, neatly placing them near the entrance and closing the door. It was clean and neat, just how Alaris likes it. I mean, if it wasn’t, would be a pretty bad inn but you know. He placed his bag down, sitting in peace for a few moments, then taking out a diary that he brought along with him to help him remember and record events, and so if anything happened to him someone would at least have this as information. He found comfort in writing down things in general, as he likes to keep his information organized in one place.

He began to write.

“ _ 5/25 | Entry 1 _

_ So far, my task is going smoothly. I am currently living in a room in the Amagi Inn, and I am to be fully situated in Inaba within about 2 days at least. Hopefully going to the local high school helps give me more information, as drama and rumors tend to be prevalent in that sort of environment.  _

_ End entry. _ ”

Putting his pencil and the neatly-written diary back in the bag, he placed himself gently on the bed. Resting his head on the pillow, he powered off for the night, letting his systems rest.

  
  
  


He was in for a wild ride, and he didn’t even know it.


	3. || settled in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> alaris finally gets an apartment, and decides to walk around the town for a bit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yosuke time! originally this chapter was gunna be even longer and include the whole tour but i decided to leave that for next chapter
> 
> also mentions of eating ( and also vaguely unsanitary stuff ) in the earliest parts of this chapter. nothing too big, only mentions, but. yknow.

Date - 5/26.

Tired synthetic eyelids open to a half-lidded state slowly, as Alaris’ body vibrates due to the quiet mechanical whirring that generally happens near start-up. As his blurry vision begins to sharpen and his body becomes refamiliarized with his surroundings of tatami mats and slightly warm air, his brainrot began to clear.

_ Ah… yes, I did take shelter within Amagi Inn, didn’t I?  _ He thought, as he stood up, again with some difficulty as he stumbled a little - having stilt-like legs didn’t lend itself well to this kind of thing. He grabbed his bag, hoisted it around his shoulder, organizing the pillows and the bed to be exactly like how it was when he entered the room yesterday just to be polite, and then he headed towards the exit of Amagi Inn, thanking the young lady at the counter before heading out in a hurry. 

He realized it might’ve looked strange that he didn’t go eat breakfast or dinner last night, but hopefully the staff just thought he ate something before he came. He *CAN* eat, and taste things… but doesn’t necessarily like to do so. The way humans expose of waste is… gross to him. And there isn’t really a good way for him to expose food either, so he often just tastes something then spits it out. Not like he needs to eat anyways.

Either way, he realized that his apartment should be ready today. Mitsuru-san tends to take care of matters like that very fast by using her connections from all around. He decided to call her up and check how it was going. Hopefully she was even awake by now, considering it was somewhat early. He poked a button on his headphones with a click.

_ Ring… ring… _ a click, and her voice came through.

“Hello Alaris. I assume you came to call about the apartment?” She sounded pretty ready for this call, speaking almost immediately when she picked up. Alaris wonders if she expected it.

“Always quick on the draw, aren’t you Mitsuru-san?” He chuckled. “Yes, that is what I called for… I assume the apartments ready by now?” He spoke. It may have been a bit of a full assumption, but he doubted Mitsuru would leave him without a home for more than 24 hours. She was usually well prepared for this sort of thing, so it’d be unlikely and a large oversight if so.

“Yes, it is. I’ll send the location to you just like how I did before. The keys are under the rug.” She said. Alaris could pretty much hear her smirk through her voice. She always did have many tricks up her sleeve.

“Thank you Mitsuru-san.” Alaris spoke softly, and clicked the button on his headphones once more, ending the call. Thankfully, at this time of day not many people were around, and Inaba generally wasn’t crowded so nobody really listened in from his knowledge. 

A buzz and a few waves of weird vibrations coursed through his body. Ah. The directions. He always somewhat hated that sensation. Why did his creators give him that weird rumble feature? He wasn’t a console controller or a phone. Whatever. Once again he pretty much let his body autopilot towards the direction, but he took in the view, the people and how they acted and dressed, and the pathways he took to get there a bit more than he did last time so he would remember. 

Not after long, he was at the door of his apartment complex. It looked dull, desaturated, and slightly cheap, but that's generally how all apartment complexes tend to look, even if the whole grim, capitalistic undertones of apartments were a tad depressing. Remembering Mitsuru’s words, he reached under the brown welcome rug, moving his hand around a little bit, and after a while, he heard the jingle of keys. Grabbing the source of the sound and picking it up, he took the key and inserted it into the slot on the door, opening it with a satisfying click.

As the door opened, he walked inside, raising his eyebrows a bit at the sight. The apartment was already fully furnished with couches, chairs, seats, food at the kitchen ( despite the fact that he didn’t need it, he supposed if he had anyone over it’d help hide the fact he wasn’t human ). It looked very nice from what looked to be a typical apartment from the outside. 

Alaris looked around the rooms. The bedroom and bathroom ( once again, he doesn’t need it, but pretty much all homes come with one, so ) were also fully furnished and supplied with typical things you would find in said rooms. Even a computer. Mitsuru-san - more specifically, whoever she hired to furnish this place - did a lot of good handiwork. 

Now that he was done admiring said handiwork, he didn’t know what exactly to do. He wasn’t really made to do normal human things, but he did have a lot of free time to kill considering it was still morning. Perhaps, looking around the town was something he should do today? He did have to get very well acquainted with it, and the path to school and such since he didn't yet have directions to it. There were a lot of local shops, too. Not that he ever really needed a lot of things they sell, but it’d still be fun to look around. 

He left his bag on the bed, and decided to walk around the town for the day to familiarize himself with it. He did need to keep up the disguise of being human, after all, and sitting in his room all day doing nothing although tempting and possibly being easier to keep his cover that way, might’ve been a bit - no, VERY - boring. And also gathering more intel by listening in on townsfolk would likely get him closer to his goal faster. 

Walking out of the apartment, he looked around. The breeze was pleasant, but staying here wouldn’t achieve much as there weren’t many people here... He decided to walk out to the Shopping District, and on the way there glancing at a few birds along the sidewalk and the townsfolk passing by, and an entrance to what looked like a Shrine. Peculiar. When he got there, he glanced at commotion nearby between what seemed like two shop owners, deciding to listen in.

“Junes is taking all our customers away...” A middle-aged looking woman sighed. “The shopping district hasn’t been nearly as busy anymore.”

“Yea... We haven’t been getting nearly as much business since Junes opened up.” She glanced to the side. “I guess it can’t be helped.” A slightly younger looking lady said.

Alaris picked up on the supposed name. Junes. It sounded familiar... It was a large superstore mall-like place, wasn’t it...? Hm. That’d likely be far more interesting than the Shopping District. And so off he went again, to walk in search of Junes, keeping his head low as he walked and mostly drowning out any passing conversation in pursuit of his goal, only looking around every once in a while to see where he was. 

After a bit, he began to see a large building that was very obviously Junes, if the sign and the somewhat drowned out cheerful music seemingly coming from it was anything to go by. Hm. He’d never been to a place like that. It definitely seemed more lively than the Shopping District, that's for sure - so he supposed those two ladies were right. Capitalism is weird. It’s either really grim, gritty, and depressing, or eerily up-beat and cheerful with no inbetween, he thought. Getting closer to the shop, he looked around at the store. The energy was definitely a lot more up-beat and cheerful compared to anything else in Inaba, as the town itself was mostly a lot more boring looking compared to the city. It still did have a certain... breath of life to it, though. 

Entering the Junes out of sheer curiosity, the music he heard became clearer when he entered the sliding doors of the department store. It was large, to say the least. He glanced at the elevators near the entrance. It must’ve been so large it had two floors. Understandably so he supposed - it WAS a department store. He walked around idly until the air chilled around him - looks like he found what seemed to be the frozen food aisles, Alaris glanced around at what they had to offer. It wasn’t like he actually did need to shop - Mitsuru got him covered very well on that end for a while - but he did like looking at how humans organized the things they had to offer, and how they upkept said things. But his thoughts were cut short as suddenly he felt something harshly bump into him, as he fell over.

“WHOAA-OH-” The voice - seemingly a teenage boy - wailed, sounds of fallen boxes surrounded the poor confused and slightly irritated robot, as Alaris places his fingers steadily on the floor, pushing whatever was being a heavy weight on his back off, and got to his feet, dusting off any debris left on his clothes before turning around and looking at the mess. There were boxes everywhere, and in the middle of the spectacle, was an orange haired teenaged boy who had fallen flat on his face. Judging from the apron and the boxes, it looked like he worked here. Curious.

“Do you normally run over your customers like this, or is that not company policy?” Alaris replied with snark filling his voice towards the whole scene. The kid groaned, getting up slowly.

“O-oh, shit, sorry,” the worker replied hastily “I didn’t uh.. see you there.” He looked up, which allowed Alaris to get a closer look of the boy. Orange-haired, freckles across his entire face, somewhat tanned skin, and hazel eyes that were looking at the anti-shadow unit like a deer in headlights. His nametag read “Hanamura Yosuke.” 

After he was done observing the other, he then took in his words. How does a human simply not see someone else who was right in front of them? Odd. Alaris sighed. “It’s fine. Just be more careful next time please.” 

Although he normally wouldn’t care much outside of getting a bit frustrated, his words did have meaning, especially because, if anything, a human would get more damaged from bumping into Alaris considering the material he’s made out of, and the soft easily fractured skin a human has. Which also may screw with Alaris’ disguise if bumped into a certain way.

“Yeah, I’ll uh, be sure to be more uh.. Careful next time,” Hanamura rubbed the nape of his neck awkwardly. “Anyways, was there anything you were looking for? I do need to kinda repay you for that slip-up.” He said, picking up the boxes and organizing them onto shelves nearby.

“Not really,” Alaris said, tipping his hat a little. “I’m just looking around.”

“You new here?” Hanamura questioned. “Inaba is preeeetty small, so it's easy to single out a fresh face from the crowd, especially since most people here are regulars at Junes anyways. You definitely don’t look like you're from around here, either.” The boy looked up and down at Alaris. He gulped. He did suppose it would be pretty easy to know if someone was new if you worked at a big mall in a small town.

“Well.. yes, I’m new to Inaba. I moved in a day ago. I’ll also be attending the highschool starting tomorrow, likely. I was originally from Port Island, and transferred here recently...” Alaris spoke, hoping the other would believe him. 

It was somewhat hard to keep track of all of this backstory, considering he was mostly spewing bullshit the second he thought about it. Hopefully the more and more he acts like a human the more he actually seems like one, and maybe he’ll even eventually fool himself so he doesn’t have to act all weird constantly. But thankfully, the other boy seemed to pay it no mind, and gave Alaris a nice smile.

“Well welcome to Inaba then! It’s a bit boring around here especially compared to the city, but you’ll get used to it eventually. New people is probably the most interesting thing we get around here. Anyways, I’m Yosuke Hanamura. Nice to meet you!” The boy - Yosuke, extended his hand for the robot. Alaris was always somewhat weird with being touched, but it was a nice gesture so he supposed he should return it. Placing his gloved hand on the palm of Yosukes, he shook firmly and then broke contact as soon as possible.

“Hey, I’m gonna get on my lunch break soon - maybe I should show you around? You know. As repayment for the whole tripping on you thing.” He chuckled nervously.

Alaris thought about it for a while. It would definitely be a benefit for someone who knew considerably more about Inaba from being a resident there to show him around - after all he had not the slightest fucking clue where the school was and that was somewhat important information he really hoped he’d get out of this. So he nodded, accepting Yosukes offer.

“It’s a deal then!” Yosuke grinned. “I’ll see you in a couple of minutes, ok?” He ran off.

A deal it is, Alaris nodded.


End file.
